Great screen and drastically better performance both come at a price.

You needed to know two things about the first iPad mini. The first thing is that it was, well, mini—it was a 7.9-inch tablet from a company whose CEO once said that users would have to sandpaper their fingers down to comfortably use anything smaller than a full-size iPad. The second was that it didn't include Apple's so-called Retina display, the high-density screen that by then had become standard-issue in iPhones and iPads.

How quickly we got used to those high-resolution screens! The first Retina iPad came out in March of 2012, and in our review of the first mini, we already had trouble going back to a non-Retina display. With this year's iPad mini, Apple addressed our complaints, bestowing upon the tablet a Retina display and removing the single largest roadblock to iPad mini ownership.

How does the new Retina iPad mini stack up compared to excellent, cheap Android tablets like the 2013 Nexus 7? And where does it stand next to Apple's other thin-and-light tablet, the newly svelte iPad Air?

Body, build quality, and other hardware

Ars Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson unpacks and spends some quality time with the Retina iPad mini and its display.

Specs at a glance: Apple Retina iPad mini

Screen

2048×1536 7.9-inch (324 PPI) touchscreen

OS

iOS 7.0.4

CPU

1.3GHz Apple A7

RAM

1GB DDR3

GPU

"Apple A7 GPU" (likely an Imagination Technologies 6-series variant)

Storage

16, 32, 64, or 128GB NAND flash

Networking

802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0

Camera

5MP rear camera, 1.2MP front camera

Ports

Lightning connector, headphone jack

Size

7.87" × 5.3" × 0.29" (200 × 134.7 × 7.5 mm)

Weight

0.73 pound (331 g) Wi-Fi, 0.75 pounds (341 g) with cellular

Battery

6471 mAh

Starting price

$399

Other perks

Charger, Lightning cable

The Retina iPad mini is one of those Apple hardware updates that doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to its physical design. It's difficult to tell the difference between the new mini and the old one by looking at the two, unless your non-Retina mini happens to be one of the now-retired black models. Even though the old mini continues on at a new $299 price point, it's now offered in white/silver and black/"space gray" just like the Retina mini, iPad Air, and iPhone 5S.

The new tablet is actually a little heavier and infinitesimally thicker than its predecessor—it doesn't gain as much weight as the full-size iPad did when it first got its Retina display, but it does go against Apple's ever-thinner-ever-lighter design trend. The new tablet is 0.29 inches thick (up from 0.28) and weighs 0.73 pounds (up from 0.68; the LTE model weighs 0.75 pounds, up from 0.69). The increase in thickness is barely noticeable and is so slight that the two can share Smart Covers and Smart Cases. The increase in weight is noticeable if you've got both tablets to hold in your hands simultaneously to compare, but it is mostly negligible if you're just using the Retina iPad mini by itself.

Both of its nearest competitors are a little thicker but a little lighter (0.34 inches and 0.64 pounds for the 2013 Nexus 7, 0.35 inches and 0.67 pounds for the Kindle Fire HDX). The size and aspect ratio of the mini's display makes a difference, though. On the one hand, a 4:3 screen is better suited to use in landscape mode for many use cases. It's surprising just how much more of the Ars homepage the iPad can show off at once relative to the Nexus 7's 16:10 screen.

Enlarge/ The Nexus 7 in landscape mode. Bring up the onscreen keyboard and your page will get even smaller.

Andrew Cunningham

On the other hand, the wider screen makes the tablet more difficult to palm or to fit in a pocket (if pocketing tablets is your thing). I have reasonably large hands, but they strain to palm the iPad mini where they can easily wrap around the Nexus 7. The more natural way to hold the iPad is by its edge, where you rely heavily on iOS' thumb rejection to ignore the parts of your hands that rest on or near the touchscreen as you use it. iOS is pretty adept at thumb rejection—even if I intentionally pressed around half my thumb down on the right edge of the screen, it in no way altered the touchscreen's accuracy or responsiveness.

Despite the minor differences (and the high-resolution screen, which we'll get to in a moment) most of the observations we made last year about actually holding and using the tablet are exactly the same. The physical size of the tablet and of its onscreen elements are substantially identical to last year's mini. It offers a smaller but still usable version of the full-size iPad experience. Where Android makes a distinction in software between 7-inch and 10-inch tablet interfaces, the iPad doesn't. Anything that runs on a full-size iPad will look and act the same way on an iPad mini, and you won't run into anything one can do that the other won't also do.

Enlarge/ From bottom to top: the iPad Air, the Retina iPad mini, the standard iPad mini, and the 2013 Nexus 7. All very thin tablets.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The iPad mini (right) looks like a smaller version of the iPad Air (left). Or does the Air look like a bigger version of the mini?

Enlarge/ The cutout at the top of the tablet is only present on LTE models to let signal through.

Andrew Cunningham

Before we get to the best part of the tablet, there's a small grab bag of minor features that all bear mentioning even though they're not worth spending a ton of time on. First, the device's stereo speakers in our review unit were a fair bit quieter than those in the iPad Air or last year's iPad mini, but in terms of sound quality and clarity, they're more or less a match for those in the iPad Air. They're noticeably less muffled-sounding than the old mini's speakers (they'll also still get loud enough to fill a room with OK-sounding music if you'd like).

Next up, you've got the cameras, which are identical to those used in the iPad Air (we'll point you to that review for a few comparison shots). The short version is that the upgraded 1.2MP FaceTime camera is a little better in low-light situations than it was before, and the 5MP rear camera takes pictures that rest somewhere between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S in quality. They're good enough for Facebook, which is about as good as they have to be.

The Retina iPad mini also picks up dual microphone pinholes, one of which is situated on the top edge of the tablet and the other of which is on the back of the tablet toward the top. As we found in our iPad Air review, these don't really help much with Siri or any dictation software, but they do help to reduce noise when video chatting.

And finally, there's the short list of features that aren't here, namely the fingerprint-reading Touch ID sensor and the iPhone 5S' gold color option. We're calling it now: gold will be the killer feature of the Retina iPad mini 2.

The screen you’ve all been waiting for

Enlarge/ The Retina mini (left) and the 2013 Nexus 7 (right) have near-identical pixel densities and great screens. Because its LCD and glass layers are fused, color and contrast "pop" just a bit more on the Nexus, but the mini has more screen real estate to offer.

Andrew Cunningham

Longtime Apple followers have been through this non-Retina-to-Retina transition in four or five different product lines now, and by this point you know the drill. Text and properly optimized images are hugely improved in the move from the 1024×768, 162 PPI display of the old mini to the 2048×1536, 324 PPI display of the new one. Fine lines and details (like those used all over the place in iOS 7) are cleaner and easier to discern. Retina iPads have been around for almost two years at this point (has it really only been two years?), and it's hard to find an app that doesn't benefit in some way from the increased pixel density.

Andrew Cunningham

Individual pixels are difficult to resolve on the Retina mini's 324 PPI screen, even close up.

Andrew Cunningham

Individual pixels are difficult to resolve on the Retina mini's 324 PPI screen, even close up.

Andrew Cunningham

By comparison, the non-Retina mini is like looking at the Retina model through a screen door.

Andrew Cunningham

Text throughout the OS is simply more readable on the new screen.

Andrew Cunningham

The same text at the same zoom level on the non-Retina mini.

Andrew Cunningham

The 2013 Nexus 7 (pictured) and the Kindle Fire HDX have screens with near-identical densities. Differences in font rendering between the platforms will change the reading experience more than the screen will.

Andrew Cunningham

Finally, some Retina-optimized images. These thumbnails from the Kindle app on the Retina mini are so detailed that you can read many of the tiny subtitles on these books.

Andrew Cunningham

The same is not true on the non-Retina mini, where the titles are even sometimes obscured and blurry.

I'm reading on my tablet the vast majority of the time, so nice sharp text was the single feature I was most looking forward to on the new iPad mini. The screen doesn't disappoint. Whether you're reading a full-size magazine page, browsing non-mobile websites, or just making the text as tiny as possible in the Kindle app for kicks, things are much clearer and easier to read. It's possible to go back to the old iPad mini, but the screen looks like a Retina iPad mini with a thin layer of Vaseline smeared on it. Text on the Retina mini looks just as great as it does on the Kindle Fire HDX or 2013 Nexus 7, which have near-identical pixel densities of 323 PPI. Differences in the way each platform renders its fonts is going to have a more substantial impact on your reading experience than differences between the displays.

When watching movies or TV shows, apparent quality is a little more dependent on your source material. Things are unquestionably nice-looking on the Retina iPad mini, though factors like brightness, color accuracy, and contrast will alter your viewing experience more (they're all good on the mini's display, though AMOLED fans will miss that display technology's deeper blacks). Here, the Nexus 7 is a close match for the mini since most video is well-suited to its widescreen aspect ratio, and its wide top and bottom bezels make it very easy to hold in portrait mode. The Kindle Fire HDX provides a similar viewing experience but is more limited in the media libraries it has access to—Apple's iTunes library is not to be discounted on this front, and the iPads can access the Amazon Video service, while the Fire couldn't get into the iTunes Store in its wildest dreams.

Compared to the iPad Air, colors on our Retina mini's screen looked just a bit more muted, but contrast seemed a little better—bear in mind that these observations may or may not apply to the iPad you buy, since Apple usually buys up displays from multiple sources. As in the Air, there's a slight air gap between the tablet's front glass and the actual LCD panel itself, making the glass and LCD easier to replace individually if either component breaks but reducing contrast and color saturation compared to fused-glass devices like the iPhone 5S or the 2013 Nexus 7. The problem is exacerbated by direct sunlight.

Finally, there have been rumors that image retention or "ghosting" problems with the screen are limiting supply of the Retina iPad minis. Using Marco Arment's handy image retention test as directed revealed no such ghosting on our review unit, but other reports from around the Internet (including one from Arment himself) indicate that some units are having problems with it. Note that image retention is temporary, unlike the "burn-in" that some CRT and plasma screens can suffer from. Apple and others have had problems with this sort of thing before—it's usually worked out as production processes and component supplies improve, but it's something early adopters should watch out for.

This is probably less of an issue for the average consumer but I just find iOS outdated, and yes that includes 7. As far as I'm concerned it's still playing catch up with Android. Now, that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have features that work/are better than Android but as an overall package I just find the Android OS to be more modern, more flexible and more robust. I've been harping about widgets since Android 1.0 and it's still valid. It's like a modern desktop OS not having free moving windows resizeable to any dimensions. I also find Google Now implementation better than Siri. Finally I think Apple failed with the iOS7 theme/look redesign, it's better than previous versions, but it's just all over the place - no consistent theme in anything, not for icon shapes, not for textures or colours, not even in some cases for interface. Contrast that with Android that has been becoming more and more consistent, intuitive and beautiful with every iteration - this is properly mature OS.

Having said all that, I must admit, iPad Mini is the only Apple device that still gives me gadget-envy on occasion. I just find the build to be marginally more appealing than Nexus 7 and I keep going back and forth between thinking that for a small sized tablet 4:3 ratio might work better than 16:10.

Yes, I have waited a year and not I want my iPad mini Retina. Worth the wait, this the one I want to mate with my iPhone 4S, which I also waited for.

Edit: Wow, less than an hour and already down-rated for saying I waited for something I wanted .... Ars must be attracting an increasing number of adolescent jerks from CNET these days. Well, have fun Android fanboys.

Are the .11n tests at 2.4 GHz or 5? 802.11ac is a 5 GHz-only standard, which explains the significant drop in the Galaxy S4 when distance increases-- but the S4 is a single-stream device, while the new mini handles two streams. It'd be nice to see the comparison of the two standards in the same band to control for the additional stream (or even better, show .11n in both bands!).

This is probably less of an issue for the average consumer but I just find iOS outdated, and yes that includes 7. As far as I'm concerned it's still playing catch up with Android. Now, that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have features that work/are better than Android but as an overall package I just find the Android OS to be more modern, more flexible and more robust. I've been harping about widgets since Android 1.0 and it's still valid. It's like a modern desktop OS not having free moving windows resizeable to any dimensions. I also find Google Now implementation better than Siri. Finally I think Apple failed with the iOS7 theme/look redesign, it's better than previous versions, but it's just all over the place - no consistent theme in anything, not for icon shapes, not for textures or colours, not even in some cases for interface. Contrast that with Android that has been becoming more and more consistent, intuitive and beautiful with every iteration - this is properly mature OS.

Having said all that, I must admit, iPad Mini is the only Apple device that still gives me gadget-envy on occasion. I just find the build to be marginally more appealing than Nexus 7 and I keep going back and forth between thinking that for a small sized tablet 4:3 ratio might work better than 16:10.

As someone that literally just got a 2013 Nexus 7 (yesterday) I'll offer my thoughts on it. First off it's fast. It's very fast. Its screen is excellent. Its battery life is excellent. Its size is already what I'd consider borderline too big.

Looking at websites on it works great, but even at less than 2/3 of a lb it feels substantial and almost too big for convenient use.

I can't imagine why someone would want a bigger tablet, especially at the prices Apple charges for their various models.

The only thing I wish my N7 had was better battery life, granted I'm not running a stock ROM but even on the stock ROM it wasn't awesome. If Apple hadn't done it's usual rape my wallet trick of releasing the non-retina first then 'Ha ha' here's the one you've all been waiting for the next year I would have bought the Mini to begin with. I have an iPad 3 and I use it every day, however it sits on a stand and never moves, the N7 goes everywhere with me.

Now if/when I give my wife my iPad 3 to replace her OG iPad 1 I'd seriously consider the Mini but at the price they want it's a really difficult choice.

It's sad to see the Nexus 7 getting slaughtered mercilessly in the benchmarks.

$229 vs $399

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

The iPad mini has a custom-designed 64 bit CPU right now already, ahead of any competitor – in two years, Apple will no longer sell any 32 bit devices and app developers are already beginning to exploit the new capabilities of the much faster CPU platform (ARMv8 vs. ARMv7).

The mini also has a much larger display than the Nexus 7, and an aluminium case.

In any iOS device you also get multiple years of day-one full-version OS upgrades plus security updates, plus arguably higher base cost in developing iOS in the first place.

The difference between zero profit and substantial profit also means the difference between the manufacturer having to mine you for other sources of profit (in Google's case selling you to their ad customers) and the manufacturer actually valuing you as the paying customer and actally treating you as such.

So no, the two are not really comparable. You pay more, but you also get substantially more.

This is probably less of an issue for the average consumer but I just find iOS outdated, and yes that includes 7. As far as I'm concerned it's still playing catch up with Android. Now, that doesn't mean iOS doesn't have features that work/are better than Android but as an overall package I just find the Android OS to be more modern, more flexible and more robust. I've been harping about widgets since Android 1.0 and it's still valid. It's like a modern desktop OS not having free moving windows resizeable to any dimensions. I also find Google Now implementation better than Siri. Finally I think Apple failed with the iOS7 theme/look redesign, it's better than previous versions, but it's just all over the place - no consistent theme in anything, not for icon shapes, not for textures or colours, not even in some cases for interface. Contrast that with Android that has been becoming more and more consistent, intuitive and beautiful with every iteration - this is properly mature OS.

Having said all that, I must admit, iPad Mini is the only Apple device that still gives me gadget-envy on occasion. I just find the build to be marginally more appealing than Nexus 7 and I keep going back and forth between thinking that for a small sized tablet 4:3 ratio might work better than 16:10.

Widgets get old.......fast.

Same here. I use exactly one. The Google now widget. And even that one is by and large useless. Having quick one click access to 20 apps is more important than having 3 widgets. And not having the stupid launcher/app drawer duality is a huge ios advantage. I would say it is more important than widgets.

That being said I miss other features of Android -SwiftKey kills ios and Android stock keyboards - intents are genius- cloud services are still better integrated than apple

And the flexibility to do stuff apple can easily forbid you like tethering or running a full speed Web browser other than the standard one etc. Pp. But stupid widgets are not one of those things I miss in ios.

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

Apple is netting about 28% on it's products (before tax), so $290 would be the break-even point.

Obviously Apple does a lot more R&D than Android clone makers do, you are getting a custom new 64 bit processor, the latest OS (instead of a year+ old one with most android devices), and top shelve components. In comparison to the Nexus, it's bigger and faster.

I can't really understand the hombrewing fans of "I can buy the processor directly from the manufacturer for $30 and the screen for $40, throw in a battery for $10 and why am I being charged hundreds for assembly I can do myself?".

But both the Kindle and Nexus 7 are near $300 tablets their makers decided to give away instead of earn a profit on (or perhaps the demand was so low they couldn't). And because of the give away they are lower quality and lower capability.

Apple pays for everything, OS development, CPU development, device costs and return on investment etc, from your purchase of it's devices. It's fair to point out the devices cost more, but it's also fair to point out you get more.

The day users don't get more is the day the top selling premium phones aren't iPhones, and the best selling tablets aren't iPads. Apple always has to put enough extra in that the market cares about and will pay for, or their model stops working. It sounds like for this reviewer that Apple is getting close to the line,. Early sales reports are the end buyers think they are still way above it.

If money is an object, if you're going to use your tablet mostly as an e-reading, movie-watching device, and if you don't have a ton invested in Apple's ecosystem, the 2013 Nexus 7 is there, waiting to accept you into its still-great, much-less-expensive arms.

What's the rationale for recommending a Nexus 7 over a Kindle Fire HDX in the stated scenario of e-reading and movie watching?

I read this a bit. Many reviewers recommend the Nexus 7 over the Kindle HDX for the budget conscious. From a consumer perspective, I'd think the HDX is a better choice for consumers: Amazon's ecosystem for e-reading and movie watching is class competitive if not the best and it actually has a modicum of customer support. It is also has higher performance and longer battery life than the Nexus 7.

Meanwhile, what does the Nexus 7 have over the HDX to really make it a better recommendation?

As for the retina iPad mini, plan on getting it for the 8 year old. 32 GB. Will be a great machine for 3 years.

When is Ars going to review the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9? It has more CPU and a better display than Nexus 7, it beats the Apple's technical specs as well, & it's much lower priced than Apple - HDX 8.9 seems the best deal. The (hypothetical so far) Nexus 10 2013 may or may not be better - if it ever gets released...

I believe the review is in-work, but TL;DR it's a big version of the smaller HDX.

I'd recommend the Nexus over the Kindles at this point because Google has a better track record w/r/t updates, because the Google Play app store is miles ahead of Amazon's, and because it doesn't lock you in to Amazon's book and video stores the way the Kindle does. Amazon's hardware isn't bad, but it's definitely just a conduit through which Amazon's content flows to you; my preference is for something more flexible.

Are the .11n tests at 2.4 GHz or 5? 802.11ac is a 5 GHz-only standard, which explains the significant drop in the Galaxy S4 when distance increases-- but the S4 is a single-stream device, while the new mini handles two streams. It'd be nice to see the comparison of the two standards in the same band to control for the additional stream (or even better, show .11n in both bands!).

Thanks for the review!

These are all 5GHz tests. I'll consider 2.4GHz tests in the future though, thanks for the feedback. :-)

When is Ars going to review the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9? It has more CPU and a better display than Nexus 7, it beats the Apple's technical specs as well, & it's much lower priced than Apple - HDX 8.9 seems the best deal. The (hypothetical so far) Nexus 10 2013 may or may not be better - if it ever gets released...

Much lower priced? It's a $400 version of the $500 iPad Air that's thicker, with a smaller screen, and a much slower 32 bit processor. And what would anyone use it for? It has far fewer apps than the Nexus or the Air, no FaceTime, no Google Now or Siri, so you are limited almost entirely to content consumption. It doesn't even support those silly Android widgets (though that is likely a plus from battery consumption and user interface standpoint).

No comments on the display gamut? It appears the Air, Nexus 7, and Kindle Fire HDX have the advantage over the iPad mini on this front. I still went with the mini, but it might be useful to include more detail.

I have noticed that both the iPad Air and the Retina iPad Mini seem twitchy with my Sprint Aircard (Sierra Wireless 803s). It is somewhat moot for me as I bought the LTE versions, but I noticed this behavior with two different iPad Airs and the Retina iPad mini. It struggles to connect in the first place, and frequently disconnects. I did not notice this at all with the previous iPad mini, and when I tested it with the iPhone 5s it seemed to work fine. I suspect an incompatibility somewhere as both an extended chat session and Genius Bar trip couldn't resolve the issue (we tried numerous different rested and setting changes). I haven't tried it with the wifi-only version, but I'm curious if this is a larger issue and/or something that can be resolved through firmware. I also noticed the Air had a harder time than my PC at connecting to a hotel wifi network but it eventually did (I'll experiment with the mini next week). I haven't noticed any issues connecting to Apple Airport-driven wifi networks but still need to test it with non-Apple routers.

If Apple was really interested in selling iPad Minis, they'd be cheaper.

Sales so far don't indicate that Apple wasn't interested in selling them – contrary to others they just don't give them away without making money (or while even losing money).

If "cheap" is your priority, you can still get the iPad mini from last year for a lower price, but I'd really recommend you to look at the two versions side by side before actually doing that. The same applies vs. competing models.

The Mini is twice as fast, has a bigger screen, gets much longer battery life, and has much faster Wifi. If you 'barely notice' any of that then yes, the Nexus 7 is the device for you.

A smart buyer also considers the issue of future-proofing. The Mini is going to be a lot more useful in 2016 when it is three years old than the Nexus 7. By then new software will demand more from the hardware leaving the Nexus sadly behind, the Mini will still be running the latest OS with all the latest security patches, and when the batteries start to wear down Mini users will be glad they had a decent battery to begin with. The Mini delivers more than enough to justify the price difference.

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

If you don't like it, you don't need to buy it. My guess is that we'll see a price drop in mid-2014 when yields improve. Apple may have priced this so that demand somewhat matches the constrained supplies during the holidays. It might not be much (maybe $379 or $349) but it might be noticeable.

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

If you don't like it, you don't need to buy it. My guess is that we'll see a price drop in mid-2014 when yields improve. Apple may have priced this so that demand somewhat matches the constrained supplies during the holidays. It might not be much (maybe $379 or $349) but it might be noticeable.

This is possible, but probably not Apple's preferred option. If they can continue to make a $400 device that is so massively superior to the Android competition that no Android manufacturer will dare the charge more than $199, then I think Apple will be very happy to watch from the high ground as the Android vendors claw each other to death in the profit-less sub-$200 wastelands below.

More likely than a price drop on the Retina Mini is that you will see a price drop on the Nexus 7!

I have a 2013 Nexus 7, and I like everything about it except for its touch screen. It often refuses to acknowledge touches and touches sometimes get stuck. Some people have complained about phantom touches. If you visit the Google forum for this device, its loaded with complaints about the touch screen. Each time Google has released a new build for the OS, the touch screen characteristics change, sometimes for the worse. The prevailing theory is that ASUS, the manufacturer of the Nexus 7, has used hardware components with a wide range of tolerances. If you're unlucky enough to get one where the digitizer or other screen-related component is near the edge of the bell curve, the firmware can't compensate for that.

Some users have even resorted to installing firmware developed by a guy on the XDA Developers site which sometimes provides a better touch screen experience. He's provided different versions so that you can try to find one that works best on your device. He's also written it so that subsequent upgrades of the software by Google won't overwrite it.

One thing I have to compliment Apple for is the excellent touch interface of their products.

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

You're assuming the break-even for the iPad mini is the same as the N7?

Well, a lot of that difference is that Apple is making a good profit, while it's very likely that the Nexus is being sold for not much more than breakeven. That's better than the various Kindle models, of course, which are sold at no better than break even, according to Bezos, or less than break even, as Bezos hints at.

If $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.

If you don't like it, you don't need to buy it. My guess is that we'll see a price drop in mid-2014 when yields improve. Apple may have priced this so that demand somewhat matches the constrained supplies during the holidays. It might not be much (maybe $379 or $349) but it might be noticeable.

I'm sorry, but when have we ever seen a price drop on an iOS device in mid-generation? These do not occur. The way Apple has accelerated their release schedule, it's more likely we'll see updated hardware in mid-2014 than a price drop.

I have had all the iPads - crazy, i know, but true. Also had a first gen N7 (hardware problems) and still have a Nook HD+ kicking around... Charging... Most of the time.

The Air is awesome - except the screen has regressed (mini like?) where it feels... Flexible... Plastic... Hollow. It's just not pleasurable to type on anymore (not that it ever was, just less so now.) it also seems less responsive. I just wonder if we have to wait for the bonded version next year (GONNA happen!) to return to light AND solid.

And then there's iOS 7 on a tablet. Blech. I can't stand it. The quirks. The lag. The lack of polish. The glitches. On the iPhone 5s I'm reasonably happy, but on the iPad... No. I put it on my ipad 4 onrelease day, and quickly reverted to iOS 6 before the window closed - glad I did.

Also, is it me, or do things crash more often on iOS 7? At this rate, iOS 8 will be awesome, but....

It's sad to see the Nexus 7 getting slaughtered mercilessly in the benchmarks.

$229 vs $399

Oh pifft. It's a two core processor slaughtering a four core processor. What does retail pricing have to do with it?

I can't even imagine what the delta will be when Apple goes 4 core. It's likely to be humiliating. ... Especially since there are no android 64 bit processors even looming on the horizon. Android appears not to have been designed with 64-bit processors in mind. Oops.

Contrast that with Android that has been becoming more and more consistent, intuitive and beautiful with every iteration - this is properly mature OS.

It would be difficult for Android to become less beautiful. The typography is awful (especially the anti-aliasing) and the icons are poky and poorly designed. For me, it just doesn't look as slick as Windows Phone, or iOS 7 and I find it much less intuitive. Even my three year old niece can use an iPad; I doubt she'd be able to use something running Android. The hardware is uninspiring as well, and lots of it looks cheap and overly-plasticky, especially the Samsung stuff. There's a reason why Apple stuff costs more, and it's not just their desire for large margins. My iPad Air is a lovely bit of kit - it looks and feels expensive and well-made.

Yes, iOS 7 is rough around the edges. It works a lot (lot) better on the iPhone than it does on the iPad. Perhaps you underestimate just how big a change it is compared to iOS 6 (which, let's face it, was getting rather dated).

GrashnakIf $230 is a break even price and you're selling for $400... you aren't making a "good" profit. You're making an obscene profit.[/quote]You can't be serious.

A 100% profit margin is the NORM for many industries. If you're selling things for less than that, you're either more interested in competing or making money on secondary purchases (content). Apple is a hardware company, so they price their stuff to make the vast majority of their profit from the hardware. That is in no sane way describable as "obscene."

NOT to mention that the "$230" figure bandied about is purely hardware, not R&D, not marketing, not payroll.

I'd recommend the Nexus over the Kindles at this point because Google has a better track record w/r/t updates, because the Google Play app store is miles ahead of Amazon's, and because it doesn't lock you in to Amazon's book and video stores the way the Kindle does. Amazon's hardware isn't bad, but it's definitely just a conduit through which Amazon's content flows to you; my preference is for something more flexible.

These reasons are fine reasons to recommend the Nexus 7 over the HDX for. But if the use case is indeed e-reading, music listening and movie watching and you can't spend another $200, I have to imagine the HDX is the one you should get over a Nexus 7, or maybe they won't be different enough to recommend one over another from this perspective.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.